Psilocybin and metacognition

“One recent development in epistemology, the philosophical study of knowledge, is the notion of ‘epistemic innocence’ introduced by bortolotti and colleagues. this concept expresses the idea that certain suboptimal cognitive processes may nonetheless have epistemic (knowledge-related) benefits. the idea that delusion or confabulation may have psychological benefits is familiar enough. what is novel and interesting is the idea that such conditions may also yield significant and otherwise unavailable epistemic benefits. i apply the notion of epistemic innocence to research on the transformative potential of psychedelic drugs. the popular epithet ‘hallucinogen’ exemplifies a view of these substances as fundamentally epistemically detrimental. i argue that the picture is more complicated and that some psychedelic states can be epistemically innocent. this conclusion is highly relevant to policy debates about psychedelic therapy. moreover, analysing the case of psychedelics can shed further light on the concept of epistemic innocence itself.”

“Recent scientific research into the therapeutic potential and mechanisms of psychedelic drugs raises intriguing and hitherto largely unexplored philosophical questions. a brief overview of the relevant science is given before addressing these questions. it is argued that psychedelic transformation is a distinctive psycho- pharmacological intervention because its mechanism of action ineliminably involves conscious mental representations, and thus is more transparent to the subject than the mechanisms of other drug therapies. this argument connects with issues in the philosophy of (cognitive) scientific explanation. it is also argued that transformative psychedelic experiences may well confer three distinct kinds of epistemic benefits: knowledge by acquaintance of the subject’s psychological potential, knowledge by acquaintance of the meta-physical nature of the (sense of) self, and revitalized capacities for the acquisition of modal knowledge. non-naturalistic metaphysical and epistemological claims abound in psychedelic circles; thus, it is important to realize that psychedelics may yield naturalistically acceptable epistemic benefits.”